Four charged in stabbing of cabdriver in Mount Laurel

Three adults and a juvenile were charged with attempted murder in an attack on a cabdriver early Monday in Mount Laurel, authorities said.

The driver, 20, who works for 5 Star Cab Service in Camden, was robbed of $40, and his neck was slashed after he picked up the four at a Cherry Hill pharmacy, said Burlington County Prosecutor Robert D. Bernardi and Mount Laurel Police Chief Dennis Cribben.

The cabdriver was in critical condition Monday at Cooper University Hospital, officials said.

A dispatcher at the cab company identified the driver as Joseph Dominguez of Camden. Authorities did not release his name.

Cherry Hill residents Breanna Pimienta, 18, and Miguel Mercado, 21; Mahadi M. Robinson, 21, of Maple Shade; and a boy, 17, were at Mercado and Pimienta's home on Chapel Avenue when they arranged for a cab to pick them up at the pharmacy, authorities said.

The group intended to rob the cabdriver, authorities said.

When the group arrived at Forrest Court about 3 a.m., Robinson, who was in the backseat, put the driver in a choke hold, authorities said. At some point, the driver was slashed with a knife.

Joel Bewley, a spokesman for the Prosecutor's Office, would not say whether Robinson slashed the cabdriver's neck or whether the victim received other stab wounds. The driver managed to get out of the taxi and ran to a nearby residence for help.

Mercado then got into the driver's seat and crashed the cab into a tree, authorities said. Robinson and the juvenile were arrested by a Mount Laurel patrol unit that responded to the scene, authorities said.

Cherry Hill police arrested Pimienta and Mercado 12 hours later at their home.

Bewley would not say whether authorities recovered a knife.

Robinson and Mercado were being held Monday in the Burlington County Jail after failing to post $300,000 bail. Pimienta was being held at the Corrections and Work Release Center in Pemberton after failing to post $300,000 bail. The juvenile was being held at the Burlington County Detention Center in Pemberton Township. All four face charges of robbery and carjacking in addition to attempted murder.

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